<p>When I read this statistic about Rice, I was a bit alarmed. I'm from Minnesota, and very few people from my school go to southern colleges. I really have nothing wrong with going to the south, but if 56% of a school is from instate, my immediate conclusion would be that that school lacks diversity. Is this true at Rice? Does that surprising statistic affect life at Rice in any way?</p>
<p>Texas is the second-most populous state in the U.S. Its residents are extremely diverse, and Rice is even more so.</p>
<p>I’m from Texas and going to rice, and we hate people from Minnesota.</p>
<p>just kidding, Texas is a lot more diverse than most people expect, especially the big cities. I went to owl days and you could not tell who was from instate and who was out of state; not that anyone would care even if you could tell.</p>
<p>Texas is huge, Rice is small. DD is not from Texas and does not feel as if it is an in-state or commuter school. Very cosmopolitan. Also very diverse. We are from one of the most diverse suburbs and she does not feel as if Rice is out of it.</p>
<p>I agree! During my experience at Owl Days, I was surprised with how many students were from Texas… but that’s because I couldn’t tell they were from Texas until after practically every other person told me so.</p>
<p>And the only souther accent I heard was from a prospie from Louisiana. Ahaha~ Rice is really, very diverse. :)</p>
<p>No need to freak out. There are a lot of Texans, but by no means does that imply a lack of diversity. Texas is huge… about the same population as those of Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota combined. Houston is absolutely nothing like El Paso. It would be like comparing someone from Detroit to someone from Fargo. Not a lot of people went to the same high schools, and I can assure you that having a bunch of Texans around does not impede upon campus life whatsoever. If anything, it’s great to be able to drive to a friend’s house a few hours away for breaks. But don’t worry. No one is walking around campus in cowboy hats.</p>
<p>Owl Days usually has a really high percentage of Texans because a lot of out-of-state kids don’t bother trekking (usually by plane) all the way to Houston just to spend an evening on campus. I know I didn’t.</p>
<p>Actually, I met a lot of out-of-staters… from all over the place. I’ve only met two people from Texas, I think. </p>
<p>P.S. I’m also from Minnesota!</p>
<p>Well obviously it lacks a type of diversity if most people are from a single state. But it shouldn’t really relate to any other type of diversity.</p>
<p>I thought it was around 45%-ish</p>
<p>You will be forced to conform and go two steppin on thursday nights, go cow tippin on friday nights, and go hunting saturday nights.</p>
<p>At Owl Day they announced that 45% was the number of Texans admitted for the class of 2013.</p>
<p>OP - where did you get this statistic?</p>
<p>who CARES? if you are so picky about a school that you make decisions based on vague and unimportant statistics, then you’re never going to find anywhere that’s good enough. and if you’re going to worry about numbers, try looking at the one that says that the class of '13 will have students from thirty-something different countries. there’s your diversity. quit worrying.</p>
<p>
But that’s not obvious, due to the huge size and vast geographic and social differences between the parts of Texas. It’s not like… New Jersey or Maine or Utah or something like that. The lines dividing states are just political boundaries - not real ones. Texas is HUGE and I mean HUGE in size and population. Rice is half Texaners, which you can imagine in your head is about the same as being half from 10 of those little bitty Eastern states. :eek: See - it’s just a paradigm shift that you need to make!</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that UCLA and UC Berkeley have an even higher percentage of Californians than Rice has Texans, and yet I’ve never heard anyone say they’re not sure they want to go to one of those schools because there might be too many Californians. There’s a bit of an anti-Texas bias that probably pre-dates our ex-President, but whatever it’s based on, it’s unfair when it comes to Rice. Rice certainly doesn’t feel like a regional school. It’s very diverse in every way, as is Houston.</p>
<p>I think the people making a fuss are more concerned over a Texan being admitted over them since they’re out of state, not diversity.</p>
<p>@modernChem: I don’t know what two-steppin is (some kind of square dance?), but it sounds like fun! And you betcha I’m up for some cow-tippin! We have quite a few cows up here is Minnesoooooota, so it wouldn’t all that foreign. </p>
<p>@Antarius: I got the statistic from a slightly outdated college book–Baron’s guide to the something or other … but I did some googling and although not 56% texans, Rice is still composed of about 45-50% texans.</p>
<p>@NCnotUNCgirl: I think it is a legitimate factor to take into consideration. Now I’m not so worried about cultural diversity, since Texas is by all meaning ethnically and culturally diverse, and so is Rice. However, as pFNMCp pointed out, Rice still does lack a certain type of diversity, that is, geographic diversity, since nearly half of its students are from a single state. </p>
<p>and @xSteven: I’ve already been admitted, so I’m not complaining in any way about too many Texans being admitted over students from other states. I think you jumped to that conclusion a bit too quickly.</p>
<p>And to everyone else: I just want to let everyone know that I won’t decide to not go to Rice just because a lot of the people there are from Texas. I just was a bit surprised by that statistic I had read, and wanted to see what people thought about it. So, please, don’t get angry with me or anything. I’m genuinely not trying to offend anyone. And ModernChem, thanks for the great humor! If I decide to commit to Rice, will you take me hunting on a saturday night?</p>
<p>waesei… the number of texas residents that apply is really high. Thus, even though the odds of getting in from Texas is like 1%, thats still 45%. People from all over Texas apply</p>
<p>Rice appears to have horrible geographic diversity when compared to almost any other elite private research university. Unless you compare it to Stanford. Both schools are in states with large populations (and geographic footprints), so the statistics hide the geographic diversity a great deal.</p>
<p>A side note - one of my friends from Atlanta always loved to point out that he actually grew up closer to Rice, despite being 4 states away, than another of our friends from El Paso.</p>
<p>during a talk with an alyson butcher, the senior admission lady, she told me rice is pushing to make 8 to 10 % of the population international students over the years.</p>